The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector with an improved solder pad which is capable of securing the connector against the surface of a printed circuit board with greater strength using a soldering process.
Prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,713,013 and 4,850,892; 5,044,988 disclose electrical connectors having posts integrally extending from the bottom surface of the insulative housing. However, these integral posts have insufficient resilient characteristics. Recent patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,681,389 and 4,907,987 each disclose using separate resilient metallic posts associated with the housing to retain the connector assembly on the printed circuit board.
Referring to FIG. 4, U.S. Pat. No 5,232,379 discloses an electrical connector with mounting means to secure on a printed circuit board. This connector comprises an elongated insulative housing having embedded therein and extending therethrough a plurality of terminals, the tails of which are bent to be parallel with the printed circuit board. A mounting means has an L-shaped body. One leg of the body being coplanar with a bottom surface of the housing is positioned at each end of the housing. The mounting means further comprises a U-shaped body perpendicular to the L-shaped body, a portion of which is received within a slot in the insulative housing and has a projecting tab abutting against the inner portion of the slot to fasten the mounting means to the insulative housing. A disadvantage of this connector is that the securing relationship between the mounting means and the printed circuit board is insufficient to endure a large lateral force because the mounting means itself for securing to the board.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.